Plot Bunny Orphanage

Sometimes I get ideas that I think might be fun, but I know I’m never going to use, so I thought I’d start a page to offer them up to anyone who might be interested.

Feel free to use them, and if you post it online somewhere let me know and I’ll link to it.

1. Remember Rumpelstiltskin? What would have happened if she hadn’t learned his true name?

2. An empty house is broken into. Police (city guard) can’t locate the owner. Less than a week after the break in the tenants who haven’t been there in over a year and a half return. (If you need more: there were 3 small boys before – now there are only two.)

3. For the longest time I’ve thought that this song would make a great movie or book. It’s not really my genre, so I’ve never done anything with it, although I suppose I could maybe tweak it to fit fantasy — or make it an urban fantasy. Anyhow, I’m not likely to do anything with it, so help yourselves.

4. An opening line that I don’t know what to do with:She ran, blinded by panic, fleeing terrors that only she could see.

5. A woman hires an assassin. The target? Herself.

6. A prince/princess is cursed and sent to our world as a “fashion doll.” (Barbie, Ken, etc.) (I suppose that it’s somewhat better than being turned into a frog… Maybe?)

7. Most of my stuff is character-driven, but this is a setting. Probably post-apocalyptic, it’s a city of refugees. Not from any one culture or place or anything, just… refugees. I don’t know who or from what. Some may have very opposite beliefs/views — possibly even be historical enemies. This might even make a great role play setting. I don’t know. I just know that it hopped in based on one line I read somewhere and won’t go away so I’m hoping someone takes it.

8. Homicide by Jury. I have no idea. I found it while going through my Plot Bunny Bag. I suppose it could be about an innocent man (or woman) found guilty and sentenced to death? And the aftermath of his/her execution? I don’t know, I must have just thought that it sounded like a good title.

9. A mysterious benefactor rescues a prisoner for a special mission. Could work in fantasy or sci fi — might make an interesting dystopian story.

10. Speaking of sci-fi, I found this gem in my bag:“I am from a place far away. I came to Earth by accident — it’s too technical to explain, but I traveled thousands of light years in less than a heart beat. I am the first of my kind to reach your world. I will not be the last. Others are looking for me. They will follow.”
Is the speaker friend or foe? Are the ones looking for him his friends or his enemies? For that matter, is it even a speaker or is it a journal entry that a human happens to find? So many ways for this to go and I have no clue what to do with it.

11. [NAME] was found dead, a victim of foul play. A lot of people were found dead in that part of town, all of them victims of foul play. What makes this special is that [NAME] is — was — a fine upstanding member of society. He should never even have been in that part of town.
But there he was.
The autopsy showed signs of recent sexual activity. The DNA other than his was unidentifiable.
The autopsy said he had drugs in his system. The toxicology report said none of the drugs were identifiable.
The autopsy said a lot of things, most of which were unidentifiable.
The only thing that the autopsy said that made sense was that he was dead.

12. The top of the scrap paper that this is written on says “Gypsies.” (Yeah, I know — I leave myself such great notes.)
[NAME] danced, her bare feet moving in quick rhythm, dark eyes laughing as the zils on the tambourine glinted in the sunlight. Her white peasant blouse was down off her shoulders, just low enough to reveal a hing of the tops of her breasts, and her brightly colored skirt swirled as she moved, revealing glimpses of her slender calves. Slowly a small crowd formed, mostly men. She smiled at them and tossed her head, her wavy dark brown hair lifting to reveal the gold hoops in her ears.

13. [NAME] sighed n frustration. He should be fighting alongside the other rebels, trying to bring down the Empire. Instead he was here, blindfolded, his arms bound behind his back, listening to the screams of the others who had been captured with him. Alone in his cell, his imagination filled in the torture.

14. “I’m not crazy. I’m not. But I am being watched. The CIA – they implanted something in me. They are tracking me.”

15. Modern fantasy: university with an occult studies program. Some of the Christian students protest it as being “the work of the devil.” [NAME] is one of those students, until s/he finds that s/he is an Adept, chosen for the school.

16. The Textbook.
A student buys a used textbook with notes written in the margins. The notes are… you decide:
A) clues to a mystery (A student disappeared last semester and the book holds clues to what happened?)
B) a prophecy that seems to speak to the reader.
C) a magic spell — including instructions for gathering the components. (Could work well for a horror story.)
D) the location of lost artifacts/treasures

17. Pursuit was far behind him now, or so he hoped, yet still he pressed on, deeper and higher into the mountains.
Cursed. That’s what people said about the mountains. And it was true that little lived or grew among the jumbled rocks and craggy outcroppings. And it was true that no one who followed the lost trail into the mountains ever returned — so true that no one had ventured along its length in the memories of several generations.
Cursed. That’s what people said about him, too, now that his last — his only — protector was dead.
The wizard [NAME] — feared, shunned, hated, had died less than a fortnight ago, taken by a working that had wrought changes that [NAME] sensed were still beyond comprehension and were still unfolding.

18. He didn’t look much like a demon-master, not that [NAME] had ever seen a demon-master, but [NAME] certainly didn’t look like she had imagined one would.

19. potentially cheesy romance title #1: Thief of Hearts

20. potentially cheesy romance title #2: Temptress After Dark

21. potentially cheesy romance title #3: Mistress of Dreams (to be fair, that could be a fantasy novel, too)

22. Frozen Dreams. Paranormal murder mystery. Seventeen years ago, a young woman fell while climbing a mountain. In a coma, she hovers between life and death. Each year, on the anniversary of her accident, someone falls to their death trying to scale that same mountain. The mountain is beginning to have a reputation for being haunted. A paranormal investigator studying the phenomenon has begun to put two and two together, and with the help of a novice shaman, s/he seeks to learn how the injured woman is connected to the deaths. But will their success lead to an end to the deaths? Or will all hell literally break loose if the dreamer is awakened?

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11 responses to “Plot Bunny Orphanage”

I just wrote #10 down for me for a story I have been working on for a while (and by that I mean: have been stuck on for a while). It sparked a little new idea, maybe it can get me going again. Thank you. 🙂

#s 15 and 16 definitely sound interesting. The lyrics to the song in #3 remind me of a book I read for an English class a while back, The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver…but I could see it also possibly taking a fantasy twist.